City Peanut Shop

The City Peanut Shop came to Trademark looking for ideas regarding how to use their designs in a creative way. After several meetings, and an on-site inspection of their Bannock street storefront, we proposed a signage suite that included a large-scale wall-mural for the store's interior, a blade sign for the exterior, and a series storefront graphics.

To create the wall mural, John and Jason performed a careful evaluation of the interior space, and determined the appropriate scale for the design. The image was transcribed onto paper with our plotter and then the outlines were "pounced" onto the wall using chalk.

Tiny holes in the paper allow the chalk to mark the wall where the design will go. 

Once the chalk outline was up, John and Jason set about hand-painting the sign.

The color pallet for the design was only a few shades of the wall color, making the mural look like a watermark. Proud painters pose for peanut parlor pictures:

Jason and John in front of the finished mural. 

As for the exterior blade-sign, it was important to catch the eye of passers by. To achieve this, we decided to use higher contrast colors, and a dimensional peanut to make the sign really stand out. The peanut itself was made from high density urethane (HDU), which is easy to carve and resists heat expansion. It was carved, sanded, and painted by hand.

Roughing out the shape with a chisel. 

John sands the nearly-finished peanut. 

The sign was built around a base of CNC-cut steel. A series of acrylic pieces were cut, and then mounted to each other using either silicone or VHB (very high bond) tape. Vinyl graphics were applied to parts of the sign to add design elements. Finally the peanut was mounted to the sign using more silicone (and a few fasteners for added security).The resulting effect is dynamic and layered, while remaining flat enough to provide contrast to the carved peanut.

Layer upon later of metal, acrylic, vinyl, and HDU.

All in all, City Peanut Shop proved to be a satisfying project for a great member of Boise's downtown business landscape. If you're ever hungry for some top-quality roasted nuts, you know where to go!